Each process gets a small unit of CPU time ( time quantum ), usually 10-100 milliseconds. After this time has elapsed, the process is preempted and added to the end of the ready queue.

If there are n processes in the ready queue and the time quantum is q , then each process gets 1/ n of the CPU time in chunks of at most q time units at once. No process waits more than ( n -1) q time units.

Performance

q large  FIFO

q small  q must be large with respect to context switch, otherwise overhead is too high